


A Final Statement

by thewightknight



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, F/F, Implied Character Death, M/M, Statements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-15
Updated: 2020-09-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:07:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26443177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewightknight/pseuds/thewightknight
Summary: Statement of Basira Hussain regarding Alice “Daisy” Tonner. Recording by Jonathan Sims.
Relationships: Basira Hussain/Alice "Daisy" Tonner, Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist/Martin Blackwood
Kudos: 13





	A Final Statement

**Author's Note:**

> This is not a happy story. Tags explained in the end notes.

_knocking at door_

_footsteps_

_sound of the door opening._

**Jon:** Basira?

 **Basira:** Hello, Jon.

_Pause_

**Basira:** Going to leave me standing out here all day?

 **Jon:** Oh, sorry. I’m just surprised to see you.

 **Basira:** I bet.

_sound of the door closing. Footsteps. Creak of furniture._

**Jon:** Would you like anything? Water?

 **Basira:** No, thank you.

_silence_

**Jon:** So, what brings you here?

 **Basira:** I wanted to give a statement.

Jon: Oh. I’m not really doing that anymore.

 **Basira:** Is that why you look like shit?

Jon: Probably.

 **Basira:** Where’s Martin.

Jon: Working. He got a job at the local library.

 **Basira:** And you?

Jon: Not me, no.

 **Basira:** Playing the happy house husband? _voice bitter_

Jon: I guess so.

 **Basira:** I'm sure you'd be happier if I wasn't here. But I want to give a statement. I need to. You need to know what happened.

 **Jon:** _long pause._ All right. Let me just find…. Oh….

 **Basira:** So they’re still doing that?

 **Jon:** Apparently so. … Anyway. Statement of Basira Hussain regarding… What exactly are you giving a statement on?

 **Basira:** Daisy. What happened to her.

 **Jon:** Oh. … Statement of Basira Hussain regarding her former partner Alice “Daisy” Tonner….

 **Basira:** Don’t say it that.

Jon: Like what?

 **Basira:** Former partner. It’s…. She’s…. Nevermind.

_pause_

**Jon:** Statement of Basira Hussain regarding Alice “Daisy” Tonner. Recording by Jonathan Sims, Head… Well, I’m not really the Archivist anymore. Not really. Does the Institute still exist?

 **Basira:** No idea. I haven’t been back since I sent you that box.

 **Jon:** What box?

 **Basira:** You didn’t get it? Odd. Maybe it got lost in the post. Anyway, let’s get on with it.

 **Jon:** _pause_ Recording by Jonathan Sims. Statement as follows.

 **Basira:** _long pause_ Daisy had nightmares. Unsurprising, that. Sometimes they came during the day.

I tried once to comfort her when she woke up from one. The cuts on my arms took too long to heal and itched the whole time.

It reminded me of those worms you lot talked about. I never saw them alive. Just the shriveled tubes they left behind afterwards, between your extinguishers and the fire suppression system. But Martin talked about them so much, and I saw your scars, and I kept imagining it. Them burrowing in under my skin, and that’s why they didn’t heal, like they were doing it over and over. Nearly drove me mad.

They did heal, eventually.

_rustle of fabric_

See? Barely a mark now.

Sorry. I’m getting off track.

When the Institute was attacked, she let it take her again. The Hunt. And she made me promise. That if she went too far, if she couldn’t come back, then I’d stop her. I’d kill her. I didn’t want to. But she asked, and I couldn’t say no to her. Always had a problem with that.

So the attack happened, and she… well, did what she did, and then she was gone. I followed. I’d promised. It wasn’t hard, figuring out where she’d gone. She left a trail. Lots of little bits and pieces. But she was moving fast, and it took me awhile to catch up.

I tracked her to the coast. When I did see her again at last, she was sneaking onto a boat. A big one—a freighter, with stacks and stacks of cargo containers. Well, maybe sneak isn’t the right word. She climbed the side of the ship like a spider crawling up a wall and disappeared over the side. It was night, and they had someone patrolling the deck, so I couldn’t follow, not and not be seen. So I waited.

The crew had been out. On leave or something. Starting around dawn, they started coming back. I thought at first I might tag along at the back of one of the groups of them, but I noticed there was a woman standing at the top of the gangplank, checking IDs against a clipboard, so that idea was out.

It went on for a bit. Maybe twenty, thirty minutes. I noticed the woman was getting impatient. She kept looking at her watch, then down at her clipboard, and back at her watch. It looked like someone, or someones, hadn’t shown up.

I found out later that a lorry had tipped over, spilled its load out on the highway. They closed the road down, so I guess some of the crew got caught in traffic, couldn't make it in time. The lorry was headed to a rendering plant. Funny that. All your statements about meat and it was because of a load of stinking, rotten meat that I got on board that ship. Walked up that gangplank with my backpack and said I was looking for passage and willing to work with it. The woman looked me up and down, sighed, and asked for ID, and just like that I was onboard.

She got someone to show me to a bunk and take me around, and they cast off a few minutes later, rushing to make the tide.

I won’t go into detail about the voyage, except to say that it was short and that some of the crew might have come looking for you to make statements, if there is stil an Institute and you were still there.

Let’s just say that Daisy continued to Hunt. We were barely two days out of port and the captain decided to turn around, it was that bad.

_door opens_

**Martin:** Jon! Are you here? I…. What’s _she_ doing here? And is that…? Jon. You promised.

 **Jon:** Martin: I thought you were working today.

 **Martin:** I was. Thought I’d surprise you with lunch.

 **Basira:** Hello to you too, Martin. Been awhile.

 **Martin:** Basira. What are you doing here?

 **Basira:** Exactly what it looks like I’m doing. Giving a statement.

 **Martin:** You shouldn’t be doing this, Jon. And you? You shouldn’t be making him do this.

 **Jon:** Martin, it’s all right.

 **Martin:** No, it isn’t. You were doing better. You didn’t need it anymore. Why are you doing this to him? Go away and leave us alone.

 **Jon:** Martin….

 **Martin:** No, Jon. She needs to leave.

 **Basira:** No. I need to do this for her, and he needs to hear this. You both do. The two of you, living your happy little lives in this house. Her house, even. And she’s…. _harsh sob_

 **Martin:** Oh. Um. Here—do you need a tissue?

 **Basira:** Thank you. _pause_ So you really haven’t been doing this at all? I sent you that box for, well, you know, sustenance. Some statements, and a letter from Elias.

 **Martin:** It got here. I burned it.

 **Jon:** You never told me.

 **Martin:** That’s right. It’d been weeks and neither of us felt like we had to go back, and we were done with it.

 **Basira:** Not done yet. Not quite. Not until I’ve finished.

 **Martin:** Basira!

 **Basira:** Oh, do shut up, Martin. And sit down. Since you’re here, you should hear this too.

 **Martin:** No. … I’ll be in the kitchen. _footsteps … door slams_

_long pause_

**Jon:** Shall we continue?

 **Basira:** Right.

When I finally caught up with her…. Well, caught up isn’t the right way to put her. I could never have caught her. She let me find her, I guess, there at the end. There was enough of her left that she recognized me. And she remembered enough of herself. What she made me promise. She told me she didn’t want me to live with that, and she said goodbye. Then she ran off the edge of the ship. Blew straight through the railing, she did. I ran after her. I thought at first she’d gone straight into the water, but she hadn’t. Instead, I saw her hanging onto the chain for the anchor. As I watched, she pulled it out, bit by bit. I could hear the creaking and groaning of the gears as it came out. Somehow, she managed to wrap herself up in it, even though it was as big around as she was. The weight of it… did things to her. It didn’t stop her, though. She braced her legs against the hull and pulled, and the chain broke. The anchor fell, and she went down with it.

When we got back to port, I got off without anyone noticing and I got a car. Don’t ask how. And I started driving. Didn’t know where I was going. And then here I was, pulling up in front of this house. And that’s it, I guess.

 **Jon:** _pause_ Well, yes. I guess so. I don’t know if it matters… means anything to you, but I’m sorry.

 **Basira:** Yes, well, it doesn’t. Not really. But thank you. I guess I’ll go now. Don’t bother seeing me out.

 **Jon:** All right. I guess this is goodbye, then.

 **Basira:** Yeah.

_sound of chair scraping… footsteps… door opens and closes_

_silence, then more footsteps and a door opening_

**Jon:** Martin?

_soft sobbing_

**Jon:** She’s gone.

_a sniffle_

**Jon:** You said you brought lunch?

 **Martin:** _pause_ Fish and chips. From the pub. They've probably gone cold now.

 **Jon:** Ah. Well, shall we eat?

 **Martin:** That thing’s still on.

 **Jon:** Oh. I guess it is…. End recording.

**Author's Note:**

> I used the tag 'implied character death' instead of the MCD because who knows if that would be enough to kill a member of the Hunt? This is the Magnus Archive, after all, and sometimes people might not stay dead. If there are any other tags you feel I should add, please let me know.
> 
> Thanks for reading! If you want to say hi, [check out my profile](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewightknight/profile) for where I’m currently hanging out on this here internet thing. If you liked this, please share! Kudos are love and comments are always appreciated.


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